Companies continue to pile up cash in record quantities

U.S. companies have been sitting on cash for a while, and there's no sign that's about to change.“The buildup of cash and marketable securities accelerated in the first quarter on a year-over-year basis to a record $1.73 trillion after slowing in early 2012,” Bloomberg reports. “At the same time, capital spending in the most recent quarter rose by the least since March 2010, when the U.S. was still emerging from a financial crisis.”Bloomberg looked at data from 2,300 U.S. companies. Trends in the data “suggest executives' lack of need or confidence to invest deepened with threats of federal spending cuts and the economic slowdowns at home, in Europe and China,” the news service says.In turn, then, the U.S. economy “loses a driver of job creation and risks staying locked in below-average growth, giving even more cause to hold tight,” according to the story.Nick Raich, chief executive officer of Earnings Scout, an independent economic research firm based in Cleveland, tells the news services, “What concerns me is that companies have all of this excess cash and they are not deploying it into their long-term operations. Public outcry will erupt if companies do not spend and create jobs.”But Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc. in Chicago, says companies simply are acting in a rational way.

“If the economy were growing rapidly and more consistently, companies would be investing like crazy,” she tells Bloomberg. “We're just not there yet.”

Shrinkage

The Census Bureau today released data that show 48 of the 50 most populous U.S. cities have grown since 2010 — and Cleveland is one of the two that didn't.USA Todayreports that the nationwide data represented improvement for cities, as only 40 of the top 50 grew in the first two years after the 2000 Census.“Of the top 100, 93 have grown since 2010, compared with just 72 a decade ago,” the newspaper says.Many of the biggest cities — New York, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego and Dallas, among others — are outpacing the nation's 1.7% growth rate since 2010, USA Today reports, as young professionals flock to metro areas.Cleveland and Detroit were the two cities, among the top 50 in population, that lost residents since 2010.USA Today produces an interactive graphic with data for the 10 biggest gainers among cities with at least 50,000 in population, as well as the 10 biggest decliners.

The 10 cities losing population the fastest, as you might guess, all are in the Great Lakes region.Three Ohio cities are among the biggest decliners: Youngstown (a 2.4% population drop since 2010), Cleveland (-1.5%) and Lakewood (-1.4%).

Growth stories

Two Cleveland companies made the 2013 Inner City 100, a list of the fastest-growing inner-city businesses in the United States.The Inner City 100 program, a joint effort of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) and Fortune magazine, recognizes successful inner-city companies and their CEOs “as role models for entrepreneurship, innovative business practices, and job creation in America's urban communities.”At No. 7 on the list is APB & Associates, at 55 Erieview Plaza, an IT consulting firm that provides project management services mainly to large firms and the government. The company has $2.2 million in annual revenue and a 75% annual growth rate, according to Fortune's profile of APB.“CEO Andre Bryan founded the company in 2004 with money he had made as an independent consultant,” the magazine says. “APB has been able to attract local talent and pay for many of its employees to attend college.”DuneCraft Products, at 14215 Caine Ave. in Cleveland, was No. 70 on the list with a five-year annual growth rate of 19% and revenue of $4.1 million. Led by CEO Grant Cleveland, the company makes science and nature products.You also can follow me on Twitter for more news about business and Northeast Ohio.

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